Siyi Yue

Siyi
Siyi
Seiyap, Sze Yup
Native to	Sze Yup
Native speakers	3.9 million (2010)[citation needed]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Yue Siyi; ; ; ;
Dialects	Taishanese; Xinhui dialect; Siqian dialect; Guzhen dialect; Enping dialect; Kaiping dialect;
Language codes
Hanyu Pinyin	Sìyìhuà
Bopomofo	ㄙˋ ㄧˋ ㄏㄨㄚˋ
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutping	sei3 jap1 waa2
other Yue
Taishanese	ɬi˧ jip˥ va˧˨˥

A speaker of Siyi Yue, recorded in China.

Siyi (Seiyap or

Sze Yup in Cantonese; Chinese: 四邑方言; pinyin: Sìyì fāngyán; Jyutping: sei3 jap1 fong1 jin4 meaning "Four Hamlets") is a coastal branch of Yue Chinese spoken mainly in Guangdong province, but is also used in overseas Chinese communities. Within the province, it is mainly spoken in the prefecture-level city of Jiangmen, but pockets exist outside Jiangmen, including the Doumen and Jinwan districts in Zhuhai, Guzhen in Zhongshan and Jun'an in Foshan. Taishanese, which was one of the most important Chinese dialects in Chinese American

communities, is considered a representative dialect.

Etymology

The name "

Xinhui, Taishan, Enping and Kaiping

.

Since a fifth county, Heshan, was added to the prefecture in 1983, this region is referred to as the "Five Counties" (Chinese: 五邑; pinyin: Wǔyì; Cantonese Yale: nǵh yāp) in the province; but for historical reasons, the term "Seiyap" is still used amongst the overseas Chinese communities.

It has also been called Delta Cantonese^[1] because all the aforementioned counties are in the Pearl River Delta.

Geographic distribution

The Siyi dialect is mainly distributed along the

Pengjiang and Xinhui, as well as the county-level cities of Taishan, Kaiping, Enping and the southeastern part of Heshan, but the dialect is also spoken in parts of Zhuhai, the town of Guzhen in Zhongshan and the town of Jun'an in Foshan. In terms of geographic extremes, Siyi is spoken furthest north in Yayao (雅瑶), Heshan; furthest south in Xiachuan Island

, Taishan; furthest east in Hongqi (红旗), Zhuhai; and furthest west in Naji (那吉), Enping. The total geographic area of the region is approximately 9000 square kilometers and the total number of speakers is estimated at 3.9 million in 2010.

References

^ Luk, Bernard H. K. "The Chinese Communities of Toronto: Their Languages and Mass Media." In: The Chinese in Ontario. Polyphony: The Bulletin of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario. Volume 15, 2000. Start p. 46. CITED: p. 47 (Archive).

Etymology

Geographic distribution

References

Further reading